>> DRIVING THE DAY: Why Microsoft got it right with new CEO Satya Nadella, by Cade Metz: "Though Bill Gates is stepping down as chairman of the board at Microsoft, we're about to see a company that looks more like Gates rather than less... Nadella has an unusually firm grasp of both the technical and the business side of Microsoft, yet he also has a knack for pushing the tech giant in new directions. That bodes well for the company, which is still struggling to match the commercial success of rivals like Apple, Google, and Amazon in the technological areas most likely to define the future." Wired

> Microsoft is deadPaul Graham (2007 post)>> PLUG IT NOW: Adobe pushes fix for Flash zero-day attack, by Brian Krebs: "Adobe Systems Inc. is urging users of its Flash Player software to upgrade to a newer version released today. The company warns that an exploit targeting a previously unknown and critical Flash security vulnerability exists in the wild, and that this flaw allows attackers to take complete control over affected systems." Krebs on Security

>> STAT DU JOUR: comScore: Apple ends 2013 with 41.8% US smartphone share, Samsung hits 26.1%; Android back to losing share, by Emil Protalinski: "We would have expected Apple's gains to be higher, given the recent arrival of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c and the lack of the Samsung Galaxy S5, but consumers were more interested in iPads. HTC's woes continue as its One smartphone just isn't the one. Motorola managed to move into third place, but not because it is doing well: it's just not tanking as badly as HTC... The Android-iOS duopoly in the US has once again hit a new high (93.3 percent market share)." TNW

>> DISARMAMENT TREATY: Google ends EU antitrust probe pledging rival links, by Aoife White: "Google will escape fines or any finding by regulators that it may have discriminated against competing sites, a year after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission dropped a similar investigation by saying Google was motivated more by innovation than by trying to stifle competition.... The five-year pledge to the European Commission lets Google add new services or alter its search page as long as it grants three links to rival services next to its own specialized search results such as Google Shopping, the Brussels-based EU said. Competitors will pay at least 3 euro cents (4 U.S. cents) to bid for a spot in a shaded box on some of Google's search pages." Bloomberg

>> ALL OUR BASE: The new Snowden revelation is dangerous for Anonymous -- and for all of us, by Gabriella Coleman: "The latest Snowden-related revelation is that Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) proactively targeted the communications infrastructure used by the online activist collective known as Anonymous.... Specifically, they implemented distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on the internet relay chat (IRC) rooms used by Anonymous. They also implanted malware to out the personal identity details of specific participants." Wired

> War on Anonymous: British spies attacked hackers, Snowden docs show NBC News

> The first congressman to battle the NSA is dead. No-one noticed, no-one cares.Pando>> DATAVIZ: ThoughtSpot promises Google-like BI experience, by Chris Kanaracus: "Two items on BI customers' wish lists have long been ease of use and a lower burden on IT. A startup called ThoughtSpot says its new BI appliance can tackle both. ThoughtSpot has developed an in-memory database for the appliance. This allows information to be held in RAM for faster processing of queries, which users enter in natural language through a Google-like form. The system relies on the use of structured data sets, in part because ThoughtSpot also provides computations along with retrieving results of queries." InfoWorld

>> ARRIVAL LOUNGE: Long-time Google Ads exec Susan Wojcicki is YouTube's new boss, by Liz Gannes, Peter Kafka: "Wojcicki was employee No. 16 at Google and she famously housed the company in the early days out of her Menlo Park, Calif. garage. Salar Kamangar, who was Google's ninth employee, and had formally led YouTube since co-founder Chad Hurley departed in 2010, is expected to shift to another role within Google... Google has never broken out YouTube's financials, and estimates vary widely, but for what it's worth eMarketer thinks the site generated $5.6 billion in ad revenue last year. It attracts more than a billion visitors a month, with more than 40 percent of them coming via their phones and tablets." Re/code

>> TOSSING BALLAST: For Sony, it's a good time to offload struggling Vaio business, by Tim Hornyak: "Struggling electronics giant Sony painted a rosy picture of its future at CES last month, but it will likely have to shed divisions that are battling intense headwinds. Speculation has focused on its PC business, known for the Vaio brand, which is rumored to be up for sale. Last week, Sony denied press reports that it was trying to sell its PC unit to Lenovo. This week, another potential buyer has been mooted--Tokyo-based investment fund Japan Industrial Partners. The possible sale, reported in the Nikkei newspaper, would involve the establishment of a new company that would take over Sony's PC business. The price tag would be about ¥40 billion (US$394 million) to ¥50 billion." PCWorld